Teach Love Sped

We all know kids who are eager to know more – it may be about planets, dinosaurs, or art. Young learners are especially curious! Curiosity encourages children of all ages to be more observant and to think about the world around them. When curious, children are more likely to try to figure things out, inquire and think through processes - all paths to deepen learning. As children explore their curiosity, they often expand their vocabulary as they use language to describe what they're seeing, hearing, feeling and experiencing.

We can leverage the power of video, books, purposeful use of technology, games and other activities in combination with PBS KIDS content to deepen curiosity and encourage exploration of our diverse and fascinating world!

https://www.pbs.org/education/blog/engaging-early-learners-using-media

Technology can be used to support assessment in many different ways; such as to track student progress over time. However, perhaps even more compelling, edtech can also be used to aid formative assessment; helping to boost engagement, identify knowledge gaps, and support further/deeper learning.

Here are just some of the ways that edtech can be used to aid learning and assessment in the classroom:

Increase flexibility

Cloud-based learning provides increased flexibility, with pupils able to access and complete online assessments at a time that best suits their individual learning style and needs. All they need is an internet ready device and a web-based or virtual environment. With personalised learning shown to motivate students into becoming investors in their own education, this approach is becoming increasingly popular here in the UK.

Improve feedback

Cloud-based edtech such as ClassFlow, allows teachers to assess student comprehension in the moment of learning, with real-time assessments and instant polling. By immediately identifying and addressing any gaps in knowledge, educators can then tailor their lessons to the real needs of each pupil.

Research into supported assessment has also highlighted some potentially interesting insights for further development. One such example involves the use of automated feedback to help students with written assignments. Learners received comparisons with their peers’ work, with the technology highlighting the similarities and differences and visually representing these side by side. Early studies have shown that students were able to identify overlapping and missing core concepts.

Recognise and cater for differences

As everyone learns a little differently, teachers have long strived to meet the needs of all their pupils; painstakingly setting and photocopying different assessments for different students depending on their abilities. Technology designed for the classroom makes this process a whole lot easier.

There is a vast range of apps available to help teachers to assess pupils depending on their personal interests, abilities, and goals. For example, the ClassDojo mobile app can be used to record student behaviour and achievements in context.

ClassFlow can also be used to increase engagement and improve learning by setting different questions for different pupils (or groups of pupils), depending on their ability, learning style, or project. By assessing students in a manner appropriate to them, pupils are less likely to become frustrated and disengaged, and more likely to succeed.

Understand the importance of emotion

Every teacher knows that emotion has a huge impact on the overall learning experience, but understanding the varying emotional needs of pupils can prove difficult. One way that technology is being used to help teachers consider the emotional impact of their learning activities, assessments and teaching methods is Subtle Stone – a handheld tool designed to let students privately communicate their emotional state directly to the teacher.

Consolidate learning

Audio and video tools can be used by students to create podcasts and presentations; reviewing their learning that term. In doing this, not only will pupils consolidate their learning in a medium that is familiar to them, but they will also produce a valuable learning resource for other students.

Socrative

Technological advancements have seeped into every corner of society, with education being no exception. For years, the practice of learning via computers and the internet has been mostly linked to higher education. However, K-12 education has become a bigger and bigger part of the virtual learning world. More than 2.7 million K-12 students took part in blended or online learning programs in 2014. It has become clear that educators across the country are trying to integrate virtual learning into their world.

Virtual learning, often called eLearning or digital learning, is defined by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy as using “computer software, the internet or both to deliver instruction to students.” The methodology and deployment of virtual learning can vary depending on the teacher and the school. There are now entire K-12 schools dedicated solely to virtual learning, with teachers instructing through a virtual classroom environment. In fact, 315,000 students are enrolled in full-time online public schools, Connections Academy estimates. And most school districts (75 percent) are supplementing their daily lessons with some sort of virtual learning instruction.

https://online.campbellsville.edu/education/virtual-learning-transforms-education/

Have you zoomed yet? Zoom is very popular right now with schools closed down around the U.S. Zoom is online meeting, conference call, or audio call. You can have multiple people meeting together at the same time, and be able to see everyone. I have not used Zoom yet, but was emailed today about an upcoming meeting that we will be on zoom. 

StorThis blog is all about online learning. Due to the outbreak of a virus that has left the world on pause. Students were sent home on Friday and will not be returning until April where I am from.  China has been on isolation for several weeks now, what can we learn from the teachers in China, that have learned to go digital.  

ASYNCHRONOUS TEACHING

Our international teachers are on four continents across eight time zones, so most of our classes are asynchronous, meaning our teachers post assignments and recorded lessons and students complete work at different times. Teachers respond using a rubric, comments, and sometimes recorded video or audio feedback through our online learning platform.

Most of our teachers have at least three live classes each week in addition to the asynchronous classes. This helps build community in the class, engages students, and makes the learning more interactive. Some teachers have found it more effective to teach live classes daily.

IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT SCREENS

It’s easy for students to spend a lot of time in front of screens for their online school. As much as possible, we’re assigning students tasks that get them up and moving and away from their devices. We’ve also been working out ways to have students continue to create art without screens.

Videos: A first-grade class recently had a homework assignment where students needed to describe a pet. One boy’s mother video recorded him while he used descriptive language to introduce the audience to his two cats. Students can also write and perform plays, or create and cook recipes and conduct interviews, and submit these assignments through video.

Workbooks and drawing: Many of our classes at school intentionally used workbooks and paper-based tasks instead of laptops to reduce students’ screen time. We’re continuing this by having students complete some assignments on paper, taking a picture of their completed work, and uploading the photo to submit the task. Similarly, our art classes are continuing to have students work on drawing, and they are taking pictures of their work to submit it to their teacher and share with the class.

TEACHER OFFICE HOURS

In addition to asynchronous and live classes, our teachers all have daily three-hour office hour shifts. They log into Moodle for the duration and are visible as “online” for any student visiting the page. This enables students to contact a teacher for help as they’re doing their schoolwork, and it helps our teachers maintain regular schedules.

This resource is comforting to both students and parents as a way to maintain instant communication with the school and teachers in real time. It’s also a way for everyone to feel a little less isolated.

Office hours are not for tech support. Early on, we clearly communicated to families how to reach our IT support staff for technical help. We remind families and students regularly—at first we did this daily—who to go to for what types of support. We also have our teachers’ office hours schedules and IT contact information clearly posted on our online learning site.

TECH SUPPORT

Tech support is vital to your remote learning being successful. Decide as soon as possible who will be responsible for what types of IT support, and how they will be reachable by students, families, and staff. Make sure all of your stakeholders know how to reach out for support.

Give teachers, students, and families video and written instructions on how to use your platform so they can answer some of their own questions before reaching out for help.

Many students don’t have laptops at home, but in the U.S., most families have access to at least one smartphone that has internet. Fortunately, Google for Education and other online learning platforms typically have good user experiences for smartphones and tablets, in addition to computers.

INVOLVE FAMILIES

Between having to find childcare and supervise squirmy young learners, remote learning can be a very stressful experience for parents. Proactively and regularly communicate with them in mediums and languages that you know they’ll actively check and understand. Give them clear directions and resources. Solicit, listen to, and act on their feedback.

And, as you would with regular school, make sure to reach out to parents with news of great work their children did. Specific work-related praise goes a long way to strengthening relationships with both families and students.

TEACHER SUPPORT

At school, our team has weekly professional development sessions. We’ve continued this using our online platform every week with consistent start and end times. Agendas are developed with our instructional leadership team and distributed to teachers in advance. We split our time between continuing to work on our year-long focus of developing our unit plans, modeling how to use our online platform, and answering questions teachers have in real time.

In addition to professional development and regular communication, we teachers are working on maintaining our sense of community. We celebrate birthdays and share photos and videos of where we are in the world. There’s even talk of doing virtual yoga classes together.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/what-teachers-china-have-learned-past-month

Storybook.org is  a great website for students. This website has books online. I work with kindergarten and first grade students, and they love storybook. I currently use remind in my classroom, but due to this school closure I am looking into better options to serve my class. So far class tag app is winning my vote. I will be tiring it out, and will be giving my feedback on this app for classroom collaboration.

 This week is 75 Digital tools and app for teachers.There is no shortage of strategies, techniques, and tools available to teachers who use formative instructional practice in their classrooms. We’ve compiled an extensive list of 75 digital tools, apps, and platforms that can help teachers and students use formative assessment to elicit evidence of student learning.

These tools and apps for formative assessment success give teachers and students many options and opportunities for classroom success. To get the most out of formative instructional strategies, check out our NWEA® formative practices workshops. You’ll gain a better understanding of the role formative practice plays within your instruction and about the four foundational practices to use in the classroom.

Just as a reference point, we do have a few criteria for tools that get added to this list:

support formative instructional strategies and ways to activate learners to be resources for themselves and peers,

free or awful close to it (under $10 per year, where possible), and

ideally both students and teachers can take the activator role in using them; however, sometimes teachers may need to get things started.

Check out the link for the 75 tools and apps listed.

https://www.nwea.org/blog/2019/75-digital-tools-apps-teachers-use-to-support-classroom-formative-assessment/#.XlYQJT7ag-0.twitter

5 Critical Thinking Activities That Get Students Up and Moving

This week we are talking about students getting up and moving and still being able to use technolongy to get students involved.

Four Corners

In this activity, students move to a corner of the classroom based on their responses to a question with four answer choices. Once they’ve moved, they can break into smaller groups to explain their choices. Call on students to share to the entire group. If students are persuaded to a different answer, they can switch corners and further discuss.

Question ideas:

Which president was most influential: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, or Abraham Lincoln?

Is Holden Caulfield a hero: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree?

Gallery Walk

This strategy encourages students to move around the classroom in groups to respond to questions, documents, images, or situations posted on chart paper. Each group gets a different colored marker to record their responses and a set amount of time at each station. When groups move, they can add their own ideas and/or respond to what prior groups have written.

Gallery ideas:

Political cartoons

Paintings

Quotes

Stations

Stations are a great way to chunk instruction and present information to the class without a “sit and get.” Group desks around the room or create centers, each with a different concept and task. There should be enough stations for three to five students to work for a set time before rotating.

Station ideas:

Types of rocks

Story elements

Literary genres

Silent Sticky-Note Storm

In this brainstorming activity, students gather in groups of three to five. Each group has a piece of chart paper with a question at the top and a stack of sticky notes. Working in silence, students record as many ideas or answers as possible, one answer per sticky note. When time is up, they post the sticky notes on the paper and then silently categorize them.

Question ideas:

How can you exercise your First Amendment rights?

What are all the ways you can divide a square into eighths?

Mingle, Pair, Share

Take your Think, Pair, Share to the next level. Instead of having students turn and talk, invite them to stand and interact. Play music while they’re moving around the classroom. When the music stops, each student finds a partner. Pose a question and invite students to silently think about their answer. Then, partners take turns sharing their thoughts.

Question ideas:

How do organisms modify their environments?

What is the theme of Romeo and Juliet?

https://www.weareteachers.com/critical-thinking-activities/?utm_content=1582727264&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

Project-based learning (PBL) has been around a lot longer than its recent history might lead us to believe. If you have been reading headlines, tweets, or Facebook posts, you would think PBL just emerged on the scene. In truth, the idea of “learning by doing” has been around since the time of Confucius. Critical thinking has been a focus in education for centuries. In fact, entire education systems have been built on getting students to not just memorize, but experience the learning.

John Dewey took experience-based learning even one step farther when he suggested that student interests should be considered. Dewey’s work on pragmatism (the use of hands-on, real-world experiences) in education is the foundation of today’s PBL.

https://www.techlearning.com/news/essential-technology-for-project-based-learning

Go noodle is an online resource I use in my class for rainy days and brain breaks. This resource has movement, yoga, sing along.  This is a great resource to get students up and moving. My students love the dancing and games with this resource.

Creating shared-ownership in the classroom is an article I found on twitter. This article does not have to do with technology in the classroom, but after reading the article as a teacher I was thinking of different ways to use technology in the classroom while promoting shared-ownership. This article is about classroom management, student management, classroom culture, and atmosphere within the classroom. Having a routine is great and some students need that to function in the classroom, you also have to shake it up and have students moving and engaged in their own learning. 

Adding technology into the classroom its great it has a lot of pros but it also can have some cons. Technology sometimes can force students to work alone, and not be engaged. Technology can also help track students progress, be able to let older students record and keep records of their own for classes. I used got a new smart board in my classroom, and I can make games for the students to work together on the board. It also lets you log in with a computer or iPad to my smart board class this would be great for older students. This article shows how to help students take ownership, and how teachers can let students share the ownership.

https://www.teachhub.com/creating-shared-ownership-classroom-culture

Jan. 25 2020

I am new to the world of twitter, and had to use twitter for a course in grad school. The assignment was to sign up for twitter follow people and or organizations with in the education. We had to retweet and tweet links about education. This is all new to me, I had to call my sister who is on twitter and she is also a little younger than me. She had to help me through this process with twitter it was not hard but I wanted to make sure I was doing the assignment correct.  She laughed, I laughed, my son laughed and then she helped me. I have Instagram which I like and use daily. I never really thought about twitter and using it for my classroom. 

I found an article while on twitter, about technology in special education classroom. I am a special education teacher for kindergarten and 1st grade students. This article  was a great read. It tells it how it is in a special education classroom or even a general education classroom. All of my students are on different levels. Technology in the classroom, is now making it easier to reach all students, to gather data, collect data, and help organize within the classroom. I would also said it has made communication easier also with parents.  

This article shows how technology has also helped students learn, it has also helped special education teachers with time management and teaching. As a kindergarten teacher my students can use IPads, and some technologies on their own, but it can be hard. As a teacher I use the technology to reach the students with charts, songs, images, videos, and games. 

http://frontandcentral.com/k-12-trends/technology-changing-special-education-classroom/